The phenomenon is well known in Venezia and occurs in San Marco from 40 up to 60 times a year. In the last few days, we were struck for as much as three times, albeit not as severe as it could be. (up to 110cm, where it has been measured once 153cm) Since San Marco is generally believed to be at about 90cm above sealevel, this obviously creates some flooding issues. The solution is the ‘acqua alta emergency plan’ which includes a number of sophisticated tools in order to warn the people from this treacherous conditions. In chronological order, these are the countermeasures taken.
The first is the state of the art and globalization/technological innovation in communication device that is developed by the Citta di Venezia. An text message service is provided for everyone that subscribes, for free, so that hours in advance you have the time and waterlevel of high tide in case of Acqua Alta conditions. It is called ‘the teaser’ since it invites people to change their schedule (classes) in order to attend this exceptional occurrence. In addition, you can enter the height of your living place in Venezia so that they can more intensively warn you if that water level would be reached and your home would flood. (quite good to know)
The second is the siren. In case you left your cellphone on the vaporetto to Murano, a siren will go of few time before the flooding actually will occur (so before the highest point already). Anyone that needs to get up in the morning for an important meeting better pray for Acqua Alta since the siren very clearly was conceived for making sleeping people realize that they might be caught by some high water levels. If it s the appointment of a lifetime, hope for water levels above 140cm, since the siren will last 5 times longer and give 5 different tones, each increasing in tone height! No chance of missing your meeting, although 140 cm probably gives you little chance on arriving there intact…
The third measure are the ‘passarele’. Those ugly wooden things that are spread around Venezia, ready for completing a safe dry route passage through the whole of Venezia during the highest water levels. These things have to hold all the people from San Marco together. Imagine the mess last saturday! Police men arrange traffic as if it was Mexico City.
The fourth and last measure is the ‘well, i ll take my chances with the water’ double approach technique: or you buy one of the many colored water protected plastic bags with soles, the more accepted way, or you decided to tolerate sewage water on your bare feet and go ‘pure nature’. An impression with pictures follows later, although here you see that it even gets into the Belgian news:
http://www.deredactie.be/cm/de.redactie/mediatheek/1.408296
The address of my new temporary home in the island of venezia. It forms the outpost base for doing the EMU third semester course, which took off like a speeding bullet. The island is… nice. Small romantic streets and bridges with soft street lightning and singing gondolieri go together with a city that falls asleep at 12 o’clock: it is truly a cinderella city. The gondola (magical carriage) after 12 is replaced by the noisy motor boat (pumpkin). Contradictory spoken, this is what makes the city more attractive, it gives the mummified city a beating heart.
Except for the daily struggle of getting up and starting to work, my biggest fight is with the hordes of tourists that pollute my path between key places in daily life. I have noticed that the only way of handling them is… patience, also considering and asking yourself whether you yourself are also still a tourist or not. Living 5 minutes walk from both Rialto bridge and Piazza San Marco has its tole.
University is the main object of occupation here. Ricerca, in Italian ‘research’, is the main element of design and handling studio content, which in fact is by far my worst aspect in doing design (amongst many others for sure). This made my scientific reading experience multiply by several factors already. (having read 1 book 
)
This is the understanding after one month of Venezia, still fresh and young. Some photographic impressions:
